This study analyzes the “gapjil” culture recurrently observed in Korean society not as a matter of individual personality or ethical deviance, but as a communicative structure in which social power asymmetry is enacted and reproduced through language. While previous studies have approached gapjil primarily at the institutional, legal, and ethical levels, this study focuses on the linguistic forms through which gapjil is realized in actual interaction. To this end, this study provides a macro-level review of the background and major situational contexts in which the gapjil language arises, centering on social settings where the hierarchy operates strongly, such as workplaces, the military, and schools, and qualitatively analyzes recurring types of linguistic expressions, including unreasonable task imposition, responsibility shifting, standard shifting, and implicit coercion of obedience. The analysis shows that gapjil operates less through explicit commands than through the shifting of responsibility, fluidization of standards, and naturalization of obedience, confirming that it is not a problem of individuals’ communicative competence, but a discourse pattern activated by structural conditions. This study suggests that resolving the gapjil culture requires, beyond improving individual ethics, redesigning communication structures and evaluation systems and it repositions how power relations operate through language from a sociolinguistic perspective.

Abstract
1. 서론
    1.1 연구의 배경과 문제 제기
    1.2 기존 갑질 담론의 한계
    1.3 연구 목적과 분석 관점
    1.4 연구문제
2. 갑질문화의 사회적 발생 배경
    2.1 위계 중심 사회 구조와 책임 비대칭
    2.2 성과 압박과 불확실성의 전가
    2.3 집단주의와 침묵 규범
3. 갑질의 주요 발생 상황: 거시적 맥락
    3.1 조직 위계와 평가 권한의 집중
    3.2 책임 소재가 불분명한 환경
    3.3 시간 압박과 규범 붕괴 상황
4. 관계 허용성과 발화 전략: 갑질문화의 언어적 실현 양상
    4.1 갑질 언어의 전제와 성격
    4.2 과업 지시형 갑질 언어
    4.3 책임 전가형 갑질 언어
    4.4 평가·비하 중심의 위계 확인형 언어
    4.5 친절 위장형 갑질 언어
    4.6 감정 관리 강요형 갑질 언어
    4.7 침묵·배제 기반의 갑질 언어
    4.8 비교·집단 압박형 갑질 언어
5. 갑질 언어의 구조적 특성
    5.1 권한과 책임의 분리 구조
    5.2 의미 유동성과 반박 불가능성
    5.3 의사소통 단절의 메커니즘
6. 결론
    6.1 연구 결과 요약
    6.2 갑질문화의 사회언어학적 재위치화
    6.3 연구의 의의와 향후 과제
참고문헌

• 제갈덕주(Director, Dream Creation Research Institute) | Deok Ju Jegal